Multiple reports making rounds online and social media, are
alleging that an Abuja-based political blogger and publisher of
Abusidiqu.com, Abubakar Sidiq, has been arrested by the Economic
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for a publication on his website.
Sidiq’s lawyer, Michael Bello, confirmed the report exclusively to TheCable News
on Monday saying that his client was arrested in the morning by 6
operatives of the EFCC, but did not give the full reason for the arrest,
only saying it was because of “an online publication’.
“About 8:45am today, some gentlemen walked up to the door of Mr
Abubakar Sidiq in Kubwa; they said they were there in respect of a car
that someone said was missing. They said they traced the car to the
house.
“They asked for the particulars of the vehicle, and he gave it
to them. It was at the point of this discussion that the EFCC bus was
driven in… One of the men identified himself as Mayana Sambo, a leader
of the team from EFCC.
“They now made it obvious that the story of the missing car was
a decoy to pull him out of the house. They opened up that he was under
arrest in respect of one of his publications. They presented a warrant
to search his house, and they searched his house until about 10am. They
only left with some documents from the house,” Bello said.
The arrest of the blogger has been buzzing on Twitter with the hashtag #FreeAbuSidiq since morning as the number 1 trending topic.
Meanwhile, Bashir Ahmad, a personal assistant to President Buhari
on New Media, has confirmed that the political blogger was this morning
invited/arrested by anti-graft agency EFCC.
Confirming the report of the arrest of the blogger, the Coalition
of Human Rights Defenders (COHRD) said that a team of stern looking and
heavily armed operatives of the Commission led by one Sambo M. Mangana
stormed the private residence of the blogger in Abuja with a search
warrant and whisked him away in a commando style after they had
ransacked his house, without disclosing the reason for the search and
arrest.
A statement from Inibehe Effiong, legal practitioner and convener of the COHRD read:
“Although details of Abusidiqu arrest is yet to be made the
public by the EFCC, it is worrisome and extremely troubling that the
commission will arrest a citizen of Nigeria in a manner reminiscent of
the dark days of military dictatorship.
“Without prejudice to any possible legal basis for the arrest,
it is pertinent to state that the EFCC does not have powers under the
extant laws, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(Establishment) Act 2004, to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute
any person for any alleged offence except in respect of economic and
financial crimes.
“Therefore, if it is a truism that the actions taken against
the blogger is connected with a critical report he published against the
Chairman of the Commission, the implication is that the EFCC has just
dealt a fatal blow on the rule of law, democracy and human rights.
“Whatever the allegations against Abubakar Usman may be, the
Chairman of the commission should urgently clarify in person or through
the Commission’s spokesman, the rationale for the arrest and detention
of the blogger.
“In the absence of any allegation of commission of financial or
economic crime against the blogger, the EFCC should without delay,
release him from custody. The EFCC is not above the law and cannot
operate like a state within a state."
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